Solano County bucks rising home price movement

The number of Bay Area homes sold last month jumped to the highest level for a July since 2005, with only Solano County registering a slight decrease, an industry information service reported.

DataQuick's latest report, released Thursday, also showed the Vallejo area with the Bay Area's second highest percentage price increase, behind only Contra Costa County.

Regionally, it was the highest level for any month in almost seven years, likely reflecting "pent-up demand meeting an increasing supply of homes for sale," DataQuick officials said.

Some 9,340 houses and condos sold in the nine-county Bay Area in July. That was up more than 18 percent from 7,897 the month before. It was also 13.3 percent up from 8,241 a year ago. It was the highest July sales since 12,538 homes sold in 2005, and the highest for any month since August 2006, when 9,713 homes sold, according to DataQuick.

"There's all this talk of a frenzy, but the fact is that we're still looking at a Bay Area housing market that is in the process of re-balancing itself, regaining lost ground. As prices continue to rise, more homes will be put up for sale, easing the upward price pressure," DataQuick president John Walsh said.

The median price paid for a home in the Bay Area last month was $562,000, the highest since it was $587,500 in Dec. 2007.

Last month, 605 homes were sold in Solano County -- .8 percent fewer than last year's, 610, the report shows. But, the median price of the homes sold here last month -- $255,750 -- was 36 percent higher than last year's $188,000. Solano continues to have the Bay Area's lowest median home sale price, followed by the Napa area's $425,000. Napa's 14 percent increase represents compared to last year's $372,500, is the Bay Area's smallest.

The Bay Area median price peaked at $665,000 in summer 2007, then dropped as low as $290,000 in March 2009.

"We are still well below our average inventory for single family homes, which continues to move prices up," she said.

When adjusting for shifts in the type of homes sold Bay Area-wide, about three quarters of last month's year-over-year increase appears to reflect actual home value increases, while the rest was market mix, DataQuick officials said.

The report shows sales continued rising sharply from last year in mid- to high-priced areas, while they tended to fall in the most affordable markets, like Vallejo. The number of homes sold in July for less than $500,000 fell nearly 15 percent compared to a year ago, while the number sold for more increased nearly 56 percent, DataQuick reported.